Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
I turned to the couch. Isaac and Alaina sat at one end, each them playing with a cloth book that had manipulatives sewn to the pages. Stella sat on the other end.
“Hi, Mommy.” Stella waved a small hand at me, and her face lit up with a grin. She had board book in her other hand.
“Hi, baby,” I said. “Mommy’s going to talk with…”
I stopped. We hadn’t really talked about how the pups were going to address Xander, Zane, and Mason. I’d been calling myself Mama and Mommy to all the babies, but with three fathers, we’d have to figure out how to differentiate Your daddies,” I said quickly. “Can you stay here and be good for Grandma?”
“Yes, Mommy,” Stella said cheerfully. Incredibly, she looked down at the board book and began sounding out words.
I thought I might fall over right then and there. The sense of doom and dread that had overtaken me while talking to Quinn hadn’t returned, but it had been replaced by a new sense of unease and concern.
“Kitchen,” I said and we all went in there.
“Coffee?” Zane asked.
“I’m about to float away from all the coffee I had at the shop. No. I could use a cold glass of water, though,”
As he filled one for me, I looked into the living room again at the sight of our children on the couch. The twins were babbling happily, and Stella was still reading.
I turned back to my mates. “What by the Goddess is going on?”
The first doubling must’ve kicked into its final surge right after I left this morning. It was a surprise to see them all the size of toddlers, but not a shock. They’d been growing so fast over the past couple of weeks, I knew it could only be a matter of time before their first growth spurt finished.
But talking…
“We aren’t sure,” Mason said “Gabriela said she’s never heard of this before.”
Zane gave me the glass, and I gulped it down. I put the glass on the table. I crossed my arms over my belly, hugging myself to hold back the shivers Zane put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him for comfort since they couldn’t all fit in there at the same time anymore. She needed a hand with the diapers and getting them some lunch, so I told Zane to grab a shower while Mason and I helped her out.” Xander shook his head with a small chuckle. “I knew pups grew fast, but it’s different when they’re your own. I never really paid attention to it before, you know? And having three so close in age, it was quite the sight.”
“Growing fast is normal,” I told him quietly, pitching my voice low to make sure none of the pups could overhear. As they grew bigger, their wolf senses would start to kick in before their wolves introduced themselves. “But talking is definitely not. They don’t learn to talk until they’re through the second doubling. which isn’t supposed to happen for another six months or so.”
“So, we have a precocious daughter,” Xander said.
I could hear the babble of babyish voices from the living room. Isaac and Alaina had been using a few sounds here and there, and they had a sort of twin language we’d heard from them both. But Stella was talking to Gabriela in full sentences.
“When I came out of the shower, they were all at the table eating their lunch,” Zane said. “And then out of nowhere, Stella asked me if she could have a glass of juice.”
“Papa, can I please have some juice! Clear as a bell,” Mason said. “I couldn’t believe it. Also, not sure why Zane gets to be Papa, and Xander gets to be Daddy, while I’m Abba,”
“It’s from the baby learning video we used to play for her all the time,” I reminded him, and his expression lit with recognition.
“I’m Daddy because I’m her father” Xander cut in.
“You are all her fathers,” I corrected him firmly. “And none of you are more or less important to her, so sto with the dick swinging.
We have more important things to be thinking about than what our daughter has decided to call you. The twins aren’t talking, are they?”
“Not like Stella is,” Mason said.
Zane shook his head and kissed my temple before letting me go so he could refill my glass. “She’s also clearly more…aware…than they are.”
Achill that had nothing to do with the cold water ran through me. “What does that mean?”
Lanie–
“I think you should just go see for yourself,” Zane said after a moment in which he hesitated and all three of my mates shared a look.
I put my hands on my hips. “You’re all keeping something from me.”
Xander moved quickly to put his arms around me. “Love, we’re not deliberately keeping secrets. I promise you. It’s just that it’s hard to explain. You need to go see for yourself, like Zane said.”
The sense of dread that I’d felt when talking to Quinn started seeping back. I put my hands over my stomach and pressed lightly to stop the churning. My heart pounded.
There couldn’t be something wrong with my Stella. There just couldn’t. Frantically, I looked from Xander to Zane and then to Mason. All three of them looked concerned, but I could feel their worry was more for me. That helped me calm down a little bit.
“We’re not sure it’s necessarily a bad thing.” Xander assured me quietly. “Unusual, sure, but some pups do mature faster.”
“Not this fast,” I muttered. “And there’s more to it than just her talking. What does ‘aware’ mean?”
“Go talk to her,” Mason urged gently. “Maybe you’ll have more of an insight than we do.”
I nodded grimly. “Fine.
Before I went in there, though, I made sure to smooth my expression. I also took a minute or two to cl my mind of worries as best I could, and to focus on slowing my thumping heart. I couldn’t do a whole lot al my upset stomach, but I tried hard to make myself as unflustered as I could.
I didn’t want my baby to sense anything strange about her mommy.
I went into the living room and put on a bright, cheerful voice. “Hi, my little love. What are you doing?”
Stella held up the book. “I reading wiff Grandma.”
I shot Gabriela a quick look. Xander’s mother raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. She gave a tiny nod.
“That’s great, sweetie. Maybe you can tell me all about it later, okay?” I held out my arms for Stella to jump into. I fit her onto my hip. “My goodness, you’re so big now. Soon I’ll hardly be able to pick you up. You’ll have to carry me around.”
Stella burst into a flutter of childish giggles that lifted my heart. I held her close, breathing in her scent. It was no longer that of a baby, but it was still familiar. I held her so tightly that she squirmed.
“Too tight, Mommy,” she complained. She put her hands on my cheeks to turn my face to hers.
“Did you have a good nap while Mommy was gone? Were you good for Grandma?”
“Yes, Mommy. You have fun wiff your friend?”
I paused and met Gabriela’s gaze again, She shrugged. I hadn’t told anyone about meeting Quinn. I looked back at Stella, who was patting my cheeks.
1 did. Do you know my friend?”
Stella shrugged and snuggled with her face into the curve of my neck. I ran my hand down her back. I rocked her a little the way I’d done ever since she was born. Only now she was able to stand on her own. Walk.
Talk.
“l ran into Quinn at the coffee shop,” I said over Stella’s shoulder, I made sure to keep my voice light and unconcerned. I definitely didn’t want her to hear anything weird in my voice.
“How did she know I’d met Quinn?” I thought to my mates.
“This is what we were talking about. She seems to know things,” Mason sent out.
“Is ita mind link? Is she overhearing us? Or somehow pulling out our thoughts?” I made sure to shield us from anyone other than the quartet.
Zane’s voice was husky. “I don’t think so. Anyway, you didn’t even tell us that out loud or through the link, so how would she have overheard it?”
“She just knew,” Xander said.
“Mommy, I hungry.” Stella squirmed in my arms until I set her down. She tipped her little face up to mine and wrapped her arms around my legs. “Snack?”
“Were you a good girl and ate all your lunch?” I asked Stella the question but looked to Gabriela for the answer.
“She did. She’s been a very, very good girl,” Gabriela answered with a small hitch in her voice.
“Snack, Mommy, pweeeeese?” Stella asked.
“How about some apples and peanut butter?” I stroked my hand over her soft, cinnamon-red curls.
She stared up at me with the piercing green eyes she’d inherited from her grandfather, Malachi. The vampire.
Stella pulled back her little lips into an exaggerated grimace and a hiss. She burst into giggles again. when I startled. Her tiny face twisted into pure delight. She’d just been teasing me.
“Mommy funny,” she said.
I met Gabriela’s gaze. Her eyes were wide. She looked scared.
I was a little scared, too.
Xander–
Seeing my baby girl walking into the kitchen on steady legs was definitely something I was going to have to get used to. Lanie got her settled at the table on one of the booster seats we’d ordered, expecting the pups to need them in the next couple of weeks.
“Sit up straight, little love,” Lanie told her. “Mommy’s going to get your snack ready.”
“Abba, juice, pweese?” Stella gave Mason a look I could already tell was designed to wrap all of us around her little finger.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?